>But human nature being as goofy as it is, people want the Real McCoy even if they can't say what it is
Yes -- human nature is goofy -- and sometimes cruel, self-centered, short-sighted, superstitious, and destructive -- but it can be overcome (which is why we have civilizations) even if it is very difficult ( which is why it took our big brains a few hundred thousand years) The demand for an original sculpture is just as irrational as that for the thigh bone of Saint Eustace -- it's Tjurunga -- and it appears that human communities at all levels of development have cherished some kind of object just because it is ancient -- maybe it's a rock or a bone or some kind of artifact that connects us to the time of the ancestors. And professional archaeologists can be just as silly about it as anyone. For example -- the museum at the Oriental Institute in Chicago once displayed an Egyptian relief that showed Ramses II defeating the Nubians. A wonderful sculpture -- by far -- the best thing in that museum. But it was only a plaster cast -- so in the most recent round of remodeling, it was removed. On the other hand -- still on display is an enormous head of a bull - that once sat on top of a column at Persepolis. That piece is still on display - but if you read the label -- over 90% of it's surface is a plaster reconstruction -- it's basically a big, modern, plaster head in which a few original fragments have been embedded to give it authenticity. What a joke! It's time to stop being silly about all this stuff -- and return to displaying the best pieces of earlier times -- just as the best literature of earlier times is made accessible, not just the original manuscripts. The art museums of great cities can still be tourist destinations -- but for the display of the best of contemporary arts instead of second rate, looted artifacts from other civilizations -- while "visual libraries" can be built to show reproductions of canonical works - plus a rotating display of less renowned originals that haven't yet qualified for reproduction. That's one way our civilization could advance -- and isn't that the concern of Philosophy? _____________________________________________________________ Click for online loan, fast & no lender fee, approval today http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2211/fc/Ioyw6ijmOSaaokmeW8wAQhYXXEiygO cDqdFL93aaGWgd3EBnD0yqI8/?count=1234567890
